Hedberg stops 46 shots, perfect in SO to lift Thrashers to 3-2 win over Rangers

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Hedberg stops 46 shots, perfect in SO to lift Thrashers to 3-2 win over Rangers

NEW YORK - Johan Hedberg was so busy during the game, he deserved the break he got in the shootout.

Hedberg made a career-best 46 saves and then was perfect in two shootout rounds to lift the Atlanta Thrashers to a 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers on Monday night.

Captain Ilya Kovalchuk and Vyacheslav Kozlov scored on the Thrashers' only shootout shots against Henrik Lundqvist. Hedberg made a pad save on NHL-leading goal scorer Marian Gaborik in the first round, then watched the puck slide off the stick of Ales Kotalik before he could muster an attempt.

"It just jumped on him," Hedberg said. "You kind of feel for the guy who wants to get a fair chance."

Kozlov and Colby Armstrong gave Atlanta a pair of one-goal leads in regulation, yet the credit went to Hedberg.

"He was our leader," Kovalchuk said. "He was outstanding. He was the best player in the game."

Ryan Callahan and Gaborik - with his 23rd goal - had power-play tallies to get New York even twice. Rookie defenceman Michael Del Zotto had two assists.

New York recorded a season high in shots, but lost for the seventh time in eight games (1-5-2). The Rangers scored fewer than three goals for the 11th time in 13 games.

"I think everybody is mad," Lundqvist said. "I walk around angry that we are not getting the wins. I try to use it as a good thing, but of course it's frustrating."

Hedberg is 3-0 in shootouts, allowing only one goal in eight attempts. Lundqvist fell to 2-1.

New York managed only two goals in a loss to Buffalo on Saturday, despite 38 shots.

"We've got to keep doing the right things, keep playing like we're playing," captain Chris Drury said. "If we keep getting over 30 shots, something is going to give."

Hedberg made 16 saves in the first period, 18 in the second, and 12 combined in the third and overtime.

"I did see the puck well and we were clearing out rebounds," Hedberg said. "It might be a little deceptive to see the other team shooting and shooting, but if you look at Henrik, there were some huge saves on his side, too."

The Thrashers grabbed their second lead when Armstrong scored Atlanta's fifth short-handed goal this season 3:06 into the third period. Ron Hainsey cleared the puck out of his end and around the boards in the New York zone, where it bounced past Del Zotto. Armstrong snapped in a shot from the right circle.

The Rangers, who also gave up a short-handed goal in their 3-2 loss on Saturday, responded before the power play ended. Del Zotto made up for his gaffe with a circle-to-circle pass to Gaborik, who tied it 2-2 at 4:05.

Atlanta threatened to take the lead again when it had a 5-on-3 power play with less than 6 minutes remaining in regulation that lasted for 1:26. Lundqvist stood his ground, drawing chants of "Hen-rik."

Christopher Higgins had a breakaway for New York just after the teams returned to full strength, but Hedberg turned his backhand shot aside.

Despite racking up a large number of shots, New York didn't generate many early scoring chances. That changed when defenceman Michal Rozsival hit Drury with a pass from inside the New York blue line that sent him into the Atlanta zone.

Before Drury got off a shot, he was pulled down by Hainsey. He drew a tripping call instead of being awarded a penalty shot.

It didn't matter, because Del Zotto fired a pass from his goal line to the Atlanta blue line - sending Callahan in alone on Hedberg. Callahan shifted from backhand to forehand to backhand before slipping the puck in at 17:10 for his seventh goal and second in two games.

"That is what is so impressive about (Del Zotto). He is so decisive," Rangers coach John Tortorella said. "When he decides to make a play, he is going to make that play."

Callahan has four goals in eight games following a seven-game drought.

Kozlov staked Atlanta to a 1-0 lead by scoring a power-play goal with 3:19 left in the first period. The Thrashers, who have won two straight after regulation, had been outshot 14-3.

"It was very big for us," Thrashers coach John Anderson said. "We want to be on the winning track. Two games in a row is good."

NOTES: Hedberg's previous high for saves was 43, done twice. ... Rangers C Brandon Dubinsky returned after missing 13 games with a broken right hand, sustained while blocking a shot at Calgary on Nov. 7. ... Kozlov has 98 career power-play goals in 1,158 NHL games. ... Kovalchuk has points in 12 of his last 17 games (eight goals, 13 assists). Thrashers D Tobias Enstrom has 16 points in 18 games. ... Atlanta is 11-1 when scoring first. ... New York's 19 shots in the second period were a season high. They had 18 against Atlanta in the third on Nov. 12. ... The Rangers' topped the 39 shots recorded on Nov. 5, a 4-2 win at Edmonton.

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The Golden Knights have hit another hurdle with their name, this time with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A trademark request has been rejected, but it doesn’t sound like the team expects a name change.

The Vegas Golden Knights are really having a tough time catching a break in the naming department.

On Wednesday, a trademark request by the Golden Knights was rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in large part because the name and logo were deemed too similar to that of the NCAA’s College of St. Rose Golden Knights.

Yes, that’s right, yet another roadblock between the NHL’s newest franchise and the name Golden Knights.

The first hurdle for the team, and the first real hubbub about the name, came shortly after the naming ceremony in late November. The team had only had the Golden Knights moniker in place for a week when it was reported by The Fayetteville Observer’s Steve DeVane that the U.S. Army was set to review Vegas’ use of the name because it is shared by the Army’s highly decorated parachute team.

And all that came after Vegas owner Bill Foley purposely strayed from his first choice for the team name, Black Knights, in order to avoid any conflict with the U.S. Army’s NCAA athletics programs and after the singular name, Knights, was reportedly avoided in order to forego any conflict with the OHL’s London Knights.

Suffice to say, the naming process has been a headache thus far. However, before those who despise the name and/or logo go celebrating in the streets, it should be noted that the latest naming hurdle likely means nothing in the long run.

“Office actions like this are not at all unusual, and we will proceed with the help of outside counsel in preparing a response to this one,” the statement reads.

In their statement, Vegas also pointed to the shared names of UCLA and Boston, both named the Bruins, Miami and Carolina, both named the Hurricanes, and even pointed out that Vegas and Clarkson share the Golden Knights name. None of this is to mention the MLB’s Texas Rangers and the NHL’s New York Rangers share a name.

“We believe, at the end of the day, all parties will embrace the fact that we are the Vegas Golden Knights and this absolutely will work out,” Craven told Gotz. “I hope people don’t overreact to this at all. We believe everyone will be satisfied. We are only going to enhance the name Golden Knights for everyone. That’s our goal.”

UPDATE: NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly has released the following statement:

“We are currently reviewing the Trademark Office's letter and will prepare a detailed response demonstrating why we continue strongly to believe the Vegas Golden Knights mark should be registered in co-existence with the college registration, just as a number of other nicknames currently co-exist in professional and college sports (particularly where there is no overlap as to the sport for which the nickname is being used). That response is not due until June 7, 2017.

“We consider this a routine matter and it is not our intention to reconsider the name or logo of this franchise. We fully intend to proceed as originally planned, relying on our common law trademark rights as well as our state trademark registrations while we work through the process of addressing the question raised in the federal applications.”

Canadiens’ Pacioretty spent all of November playing on a broken foot

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Canadiens’ Pacioretty spent all of November playing on a broken foot

Max Pacioretty has a good reason for his slump throughout November: he was playing with a broken foot. Pacioretty found his groove to start December, though, with three goals and four points in four games.

The Canadiens’ major off-season move saw P.K. Subban shipped out to Nashville in exchange for Predators captain Shea Weber, and there have been rumblings that Montreal could be heading towards another major move at some point this season, this including captain Max Pacioretty.

While the rumor may sound far-fetched or bizarre, it wasn’t without reason. You see, Pacioretty, 28, was off to one of the slowest starts of his career and through the early part of the season he looked as though he was a shell of his former goal-scoring self. By the end of October, Pacioretty had just two goals. Come the end of November, he had increased that to just five. All the while, Pacioretty was watching his ice time fluctuate.

It’s near impossible to know exactly when the injury came, especially without Pacioretty outright saying when it occurred, but it’s not hard to believe that the veteran winger was fighting through injury over the course of the past month. Pacioretty has been one of the league’s most consistent goal scorers in the past four seasons.

From the start of the 2012-13 lockout shortened campaign until the culmination of the 2015-16 season, Pacioretty scored 121 goals, good for the ninth most in the league. His .43 goals per game rate over that span is the same as that of Jamie Benn’s and ranked ahead of Sidney Crosby, Rick Nash, James Neal, Vladimir Tarasenko, Evgeni Malkin and you get the point. This season, though, Pacioretty’s five goals through 23 games had his goals rate at roughly half of his rate of the past few seasons.

That has changed in early December, though. Since the calendar turned over, Pacioretty has been one of the hottest scorers in the Montreal lineup and a terror on the ice. In four games, he has a team-leading three goals and four points, no one has put more rubber on net than Pacioretty’s 15 shots and there isn’t a single forward in the lineup seeing more ice time or shifts. He broke out of his November-long slump in a big way, too, with a two-goal, three-point performance against the usually smothering Los Angeles Kings.

If Pacioretty is fully healed, and his recent performance seems to indicate as such, don’t expect those trade rumors to keep gathering much, or any, steam. Finding his form from past seasons makes him one of the best weapons in the Canadiens’ lineup and a potential game breaker as the season wears on.

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Fans want to see NHL players play at the Olympics, the players want to play in the tournament, but the NHL’s Board of Governors still needs some convincing.

If the NHL is going to send players to the Olympics, the NHL’s Board of Governors are going to need some convincing and they’re going to need it in rather short order.

It was reported around the World Cup of Hockey that the NHL had a mid-January deadline to decide on Olympic participation for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. And at the first day of Board of Governors meetings in Palm Beach, Fla., little more than a month from that deadline, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman didn’t make it sound as though the situation is all that positive in terms of the world’s best players heading to the tournament.

One of the sticking points for the Board of Governors, according to Bettman, was the impact the Olympics have on the NHL product.

"There are a lot of owners, clubs, over the years that have been very concerned about what Olympic participation does to the season, what it does to the players in terms of injuries, not just to those that go but having a compressed schedule can make the players more tired, more wear and tear, and the potential for injury is greater,” Bettman said, according to NHL.com’s Dan Rosen.

Even still, Bettman approached the IIHF’s assurance of covering the costs with skepticism and a warning that it doesn’t mean Olympic participation is green lit.

"We have been very clear to Rene Fasel at the IIHF and to Don Fehr at the [NHL] Players' Association that if the expenses aren't being covered, the League isn't paying for them and there really is nothing to talk about," Bettman said, according to Rosen. "Just because somebody may decide to pay for them, and to this point we don't actually know where that stands, that doesn't mean that it's a go.”

Bettman added that he wasn’t sure there was “even the money to cover what's been covered in the last Olympics,” regardless of what the IIHF would say. And even if everything fell in line for an Olympic participation proposal in the coming days, weeks or month, Bettman said it will still need the approval of the Board of Governors in order for the players to be sent to South Korea for the tournament.

"If there is something at some point to take to the Board, it will need an affirmative vote of the Board of Governors," Bettman said, according to Rosen. "I think it's fair to say that there is some strong negative sentiment in the room, but nothing was decided today.”

John Tavares scores with a move no one had ever done before

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John Tavares scores with a move no one had ever done before

The New York Islanders captain undressed Jay Bouwmeester in the most unusual of ways, but the important thing is he kept the puck. Then he buried it

John Tavares: good at hockey.

The New York Islanders captain pulled off an absolutely stunning series of moves last night, culminating in a laser-shot goal against St. Louis Blues goalie Jake Allen. But let's get back to his humbling of Olympic gold medallist Jay Bouwmeester, because that's where the real magic happened.

Witness, as Tavares puts his stick behind his back and grabs it with his other hand while still skating and fending off Bouwmeester. Then, since he is a patient boy, Tavares waits and waits and waits before firing one top corner on Allen:

As the soccer folks would say, lovely. New York would go on to beat the Blues 3-2, with Anders Lee scoring the other two goals for the Isles. After struggling to begin the season, New York is now 6-2-2 in its past 10 games. Tavares leads the squad with 21 points through 26 contests.